Shahriar for greater collaboration with Indias northeast
Coxs Bazar to host next Bangladesh-India Friendship Dialogue
UNB
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Tuesday emphasised greater collaboration between North East (NE) of India and Bangladesh to enhance bilateral trade and bridge the trade deficit between Bangladesh and India, reports UNB.
While delivering his concluding speech at the 8th round of India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue that ended in Guwahati, he also reiterated that Bangladesh will never forget the sacrifices of the people of India made during the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy, introducing himself as a friend of Bangladesh, said the country should get its fair share of water from the Teesta River. The State Minister also had meetings with Ram Madhab, Director of India Foundation National Secretary General of BJP, and Hemanta Bishwa Sharma, Minister of Finance, Health and Education of the Government of Assam.
The three-day event ended after the adoption of Guwahati declaration. The next round of dialogue will be held in Cox Bazar at the beginning of 2018.
The Guwahati Declaration said visionary progress made by the two countries over the last seven years and in particular with the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh in 2015 and the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in 2017 ought to continue in stronger strides and deserves stronger institutional attention from the relevant ministries and agencies of the two governments. The Friendship Dialogue has carefully assessed the impact of the changing world order on peace, stability and prosperity of South Asia, in particular, of India and Bangladesh.
It has re-assessed and measured progress in the areas discussed in the sixth and seventh rounds, particularly in managing peaceful and prosperous international borders and security; water security and joint basin management; energy security and cross-border generation and trade in power; connectivity and integrated multimodal communication - with special emphasis on utilising inland waterways; sub-regional and regional development and utilisation of mega architectures such as regional and continental highways, rail networks, sea ports and coastal shipping; and investment, production, manufacturing and service sector complementarity.
It has also assessed the possibilities and modalities for designing sustainable and forward-looking mechanisms in joint finance and promotion of both innovative and high-end value-added products and services and has also suggested a security and economic vision of South Asia for 2030 - which is built on a platform of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Preparing a Vision Document and Research Report on NE India and Bangladesh: Borders as Prosperity Zones and organising an India-Bangladesh Business Summit have been suggested in the 8th session.
With an aim to ensure sustainable political goodwill and trust, economic growth and shared prosperity of the peoples of India and Bangladesh, the 8th iteration declares its conviction that ensuring greater people-to-people and business-to-business contacts between the Northeastern Region of India and Bangladesh is crucial.
